Automatic station indicator



April 1950 1... D. cozART 2,502,829

AUTOMATIC STATION INDICATOR Filed Dec. e, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. 4 Leona/'0 D. Gaza/'2 April 4, 1950 L. p. cozART AUTOMATIC STATION INDICATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 6, 1946 Patented Apr. 4, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE AUTOMATIC STATION INDICATOR Leonard D. Cozart, Fort Worth, Tex.

Application December 6, 1946, Serial No. 714,510

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to automatic station indicators for trains and the like.

An object of the invention is to provide a device which may be installed upon a train, bus or trolley car, and which indicates what the next stop will be.

Another object of the invention is to provide a device having a plurality of station legends supported in a housing and having means actuated automatically as the vehicle in which it is installed approaches a station, for indicating the name of the station by exhibiting the station legend identifying that station as the next stop.

A further object of the invention is to provide an automatic station indicator which is simple in design, inexpensive to manufacture, and which is effective and automatic in operation for indicating the next stop on any one of a number of possible train or trolley routes.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and in which:

Figure 1 is a sectional elevationa1 View of the housing containing the exhibiting means for the automatic station indicator.

Figure 2 is a sectional plan view taken on line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a sectional plan View taken on line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a sectional elevational view of the optical light projection element employed in the device.

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the housing of Figure 1, showing the next station exhibited on the viewing screen thereof.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary elevational view of a train car on a track, showing the actuating mechanism, view being partly broken out.

Figure '7 is a schematic of the wiring circuit of the automatic station indicator of the present invention.

In order to understand clearly the nature of the invention and the best means for carrying it out, reference may now be made to the drawings, in which like reference characters denote similar parts throughout the several views. As shown, there is a car Hl supported on traction wheels I2 and moving on a track [4 in the usual manner, as for trains and trolley cars. Inside the car and in a position visible to all the passengers, I mount an exhibiting housing It having mounting flanges l8 for securing it to the car interior walls. The housing has side walls 20, top and bottom walls 2 22 and 24, and a rearward end wall 26. The right hand end of the housing l6 has a shelf 28, which, with the rightward extensions of the side walls and the top wall 22, forms a projection 30 of the interior chamber 32 of the housing, the projection having an opening 34 into which is set a ground glass projection screen 36.

One of the side walls has a door 38 hinged thereto to afford access to the interior thereof. Inside the chamber 32 I provide a vertical shaft 40, the lower end 42 of which is journaled in a vertical bearing formed in a flanged base member 44. The shaft 40 has fast thereon a toothed or notched wheel 46, the teeth of which are engaged by the distal end of a pawl 48 which is pivotally attached by means of a pin 50 to an upstanding bracket 52 secured to the floor 24 of the housing.

A connecting rod 54 pivotally engages the pawl 48, as shown, and may be integral with an iron plunger extending into a solenoid 56 having a solenoid coil 58 which is adapted to be actuated by means of current derived through lead wires 60.

The wires 60 extend as a cabled pair downward through the car to a switch housing 62, one of the wires 60 being grounded and the other being attached to one contact element of the switch. The other contact element of the switch is connected by wire 64 to a battery 66, the other terminal of which is grounded at 68.

It is thus apparent that upward movement of the switch-actuating plunger 10 of the switch, as the lower wheeled end 12 of the actuating lever 14 is cammed upward by contact with the post 16 on the rail bed 18, will close the circuit allowing the current from the battery to actuate the solenoid 56, drawing the plunger inside the solenoid and turning the notched wheel and the shaft 40 by a distance equal to one notch. Spring means may be provided for returning the pawl 48 to initial position after each solenoid actuation.

A transparent cylinder is supported between an upper plate 82 and a lower ring 84, the upper plate having a downwardly open recess 86 for the reception of the upper end of the upper end portion 90 of the rotatable shaft 40', the shaft being securely keyed in the recess so as to cause the cylinder to rotate therewith. The lower end of the shaft portion 90 extends into a sleeve 92, being secured therein by a pin or set screw 94.

The shaft 40 is thus formed in two sections, that is, a lower section 96 and an upper section 90, the upper end portion 90 being keyed to the sleeve 92, and the lower portion 96 extending upwards into the sleeve. However, as shown in Figure 3, the sleeve bore at its upper end is circular for receiving the rod 90, and rectangular lower down for slidably receiving the correspondingly rectangular shaped upper end of the lower rod portion 96. This makes the sleeve rotatable with the rod 96, rotation of the rod 40 causing the cylinder 80 to turn about its vertical axis.

The sleeve 92 has a number of vertically spaced discs 98 secured thereto, as shown in Figures 1 and 3, with a support finger I pivoted at I02 in a bracket I04 for engaging in a space between any two discs to hold them in any desired vertical position relative to the floor 24. A spring I06, one end of which engages the bracket I04 and the other end of which engages the finger I00 serves to counterbalance the Weight of the supported members.

The finger I00 may be moved laterally into the space between adjacent discs when they are correctly vertically positioned. It will be observed that the transparent cylinder 80 has station names imprinted thereon, such as El Paso, Houston, etc, there being a number of horizontal rings of such names, each ring representing a different route, and the names on any particular ring representing the successive station 1.

stops on that route. It is apparent that the positions of the discs 98 relative to the finger I00 will determine which station route ring is opposite the light projection unit I08, which is supported on a tubular post I I0 supported on a bracket I I2 on the side wall of the housing I6, the post H0 and its light projection unit I00 extending upwards inside the transparent cylinder 80.

The light projection unit I08 has a casing II4 inside of which is a light source I I6, reflector I I0 and lens I20 for projecting light through the cylinder 80 onto the ground glass screen 36, thus projecting the name of the next station stop, such as Yuma, shown in Figure 5. The lamp H6 is actuated by current derived from the battery 66 through wires I22 which are also connected to the switch 62, so that current is caused to flow in both wires 60 and I22 when the train passes the post 16 as a station is being approached. The light remains on for a short period of time, a suitable time delay mechanism I30 being installed so that the passengers have time to read the illuminated legend, and then goes off until another station is being approached.

The discs 98 may have a radial slot formed in each to permit vertical traverse of the finger I00, and the slots may be arranged one above the other, or they may be arranged out of vertical alignment, so that when the names on one name ring have been used up by turning of the cylinder through 360 degrees, then the finger will pass through the slot of the next disc, allowing all the discs to drop by one, whereupon the next ring of names may be used, and so on until all are used. To reset the apparatus after all the stations on the drum 80 have been shown, it is merely necessary to bring the finger I00 into position underlying the lowermost one of the horizontally disposed discs 98. It is to be noted that this may be accomplished manually by grasping the discs and effecting the rotation thereof until the finger I00 is in registry with the slot provided in the uppermost one of the discs 98, whereupon the plurality of discs 98 carried on the sleeve 92 may be moved upwardly until the finger I00 is disposed in the space beneath the uppermost disc. In this manner, the finger I00 can be passed through each of the discs 98 until the finger I00 underlies the lowermost disc 98 and the station indicator is in its position to redisplay the plurality of horizontal name rings. Such an arrangement is of particular utility where there are a large number of stops on the route, too many names to be shown on a single horizontal name ring.

Although I have described a preferred embodiment of my invention in specific terms, it is to be understood that various changes may be made in size, shape, materials and arrangement without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

I claim:

In an automatic station indicator for a train car, a housing provided with an opening positioned within said car and supported by the latter, a screen in registry with said opening and carried by said housing, a vertically disposed rotatable shaft disposed in said housing and supported by the bottom of the latter, a horizontally disposed notched wheel spaced in the bottom of said housing and secured to said shaft, a transparent rotatable cylinder mounted for vertical movement within said housing and operatively connected to the upper end of said shaft, a plurality of horizontally disposed concentric rows of station legends imprinted on said cylinder, stationary light-emitting means arranged within said cylinder and connected to a source of electrical energy for projecting light through one row of said transparent cylinder at a time on to said screen, electro-magnetic means operatively connected to said notched wheel for rotating said cylinder step-by-step to successively interpose an appropriate station name of said one row between said screen and said light-emitting means upon approach of the train to a station, a plurality of horizontally disposed discs arranged in spaced relation with respect to each other and carried by said shaft, and means in said housing co-acting with said discs for causing vertical movement of said cylinder to render successive rows efiective.

LEONARD D. COZART.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,030,355 Vickery June 25, 1912 1,619,096 Walsh Mar. 1, 1927 

